Astrid stared at the message she had just received. It was a quest, and there was only one person who could have sent it to her. The god of Deception.
What does Sham want now?” she thought apprehensively. Knowing it would do her no good to ignore it, she opened the message.
New quest from the god of Deception
You are safe in the city. Time to learn some skills
Objective: Read the Devine Book of Deception
Reward: 1 large copper
That was the book she had received for completing a previous quest and only at the last moment, decided to keep. After reading the index, she had decided that she had no interest in learning anything the book had to offer and had no intention of ever reading it. However, now she no longer had a choice.
At the moment, her room was too dark to read the book, and she had no candle to light. She made a mental note to get one next time she went shopping. For now, she had a valid excuse to postpone starting the quest until tomorrow. Besides, it was getting quite late, and she was tired after a long day.
Her sleep was plagued by nightmares of monsters ripping her family apart while she just stood and watched. They pleaded with her to save them, but still, she didn’t move. She couldn’t. Her entire body was frozen in place.
“Why didn’t you save us?” her mother asked. “You could have fought them off with ease, but you did nothing.”
“No mom I couldn’t fight at the time, and you told me to run, so I did that.” Astrid stammered, trying not to cry at her mother’s words.
“You’re an evil, selfish child. You should have been the one to die.”
The screams of her dying family mixed with the howls of the monsters. Then she woke up, her heart pounding.
It took her a moment to recognize where she was, but she soon remembered the inn where she was staying. The first signs of sunrise were visible through the window, so she didn’t bother going back to sleep. She doubted she would even manage to doze off again after that nightmare.
Checking her stats showed that her spirit was half empty, but at least everything else had recovered. She could deal with low spirit. She had done that before. All she had to do was keep herself busy.
Giving up on falling back asleep, she got dressed while making a mental list of what she had to do today. She would have to deliver the last Water moss to the dye house, buy a few items at the shops, find a place to do laundry, and take out a new stack of quests.
That reminded her of the quest Sham had given her last night. She should probably start on that as well. She found the book in her inventory and turned to the first chapter called "Traps." She grimaced at the title but began reading regardless.
You have unlocked trapping skill. Trapping skill is now lv 1
This skill gives you the ability to spot traps, identify them and set simple traps of your own
You gained a 20 % skill boost until you reach the next level from reading a skill book on traps
Astrid stopped reading. That had to be enough for today. It was no longer too early for breakfast, so she put the book back in her inventory before heading downstairs, remembering to disguise herself as an adult at the last moment.
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The harbor bustled with activity as Astrid walked towards the dye house. The smell of sea and fish filled the air, and a few moored boats rocked in the calm water.
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Soon, she found what she was looking for and went inside. Splotches of different colors stained the ground and walls. Men, women, and children stirred around in large vats filled with bubbling solutions. The workers also had colorful stains on their skin and clothes. No one paid her any attention. They were all too focused on their work for that.
Astrid kept her distance so as not to disturb anyone—or get dye on her dress—while she looked around for the owner. She spotted a man standing to the side, inspecting some newly dyed fabric, and approached him.
“Good morning, sir,” she said to get his attention. “I’ve come to deliver some Water moss. It’s to complete a quest.”
“Finally. Let me see what you’ve got,” he said. Astrid nervously pulled the moss from her inventory for the man to scrutinize.
“It will do,” he said after a moment of silence, and then handed her a large copper. “Would you be able to bring me yellow fern and plume berries as well? I posted a quest several weeks ago, but no one has responded yet. Do you have any idea how hard it is to run a business when you can’t get the raw materials you need anywhere?”
“I can imagine it would be difficult,” Astrid said.
“Difficult doesn’t describe it. It's downright impossible. I’ve already had to let workers go and turn down customers.”
He seemed a bit hostile, but she figured it was stress from seeing his livelihood slowly crumble and being unable to do anything to stop it.
“I’ll see what I can do about the plants you need.” Astrid said. Then she left the dye house before she was dragged into a lengthy, one-sided conversation. On her way back to the inn, she picked up a few items from the shops. She got a bar of soap and a sewing kit so she could fix the dress she wore yesterday. The innkeeper had told her he had a laundry room she could use whenever she needed it. Then she bought a candle and a box of matches, so she always had access to fire and a light source. She also got a comb for her hair and some bread rolls for lunch.
Back at the inn, she quickly washed the dress from yesterday as best she could and hung it up to dry. Then she headed off towards the job hall.
The notice board with quests was as full as it had been the day before. She studied it for a while, trying to get an idea of what people were looking for. Now that Sham had issued her a quest that would take a while to complete, she only had room for four others. But if she knew what plants people wanted, she could get them as well if she came across them. That would save her a few trips to the forest.
Finally, she picked up the quests she wanted and went to the job hall manager. There, a group of people approached her. Two men and a woman. They looked to be in their early twenties, and they were armed. The man in front had a quarterstaff, and the two others had swords.
“You must be Astrid,” the man with the quarterstaff said. It wasn’t a question, so denying it would be useless.
“Yes, that’s me,” she said. “How do you know? I don’t think we have met before." Astrid gave him a closer look. She got the feeling that he was the leader of the group. His clothes were practical yet screamed of wealth, and unless the staff was just for show, he knew how to do magic. That made him the most dangerous person in the group.
“We haven’t. We just heard that you took a bunch of quests yesterday and headed out to the forest on your own. That’s a very dangerous thing to do these days. I’m surprised you made it back alive.”
“Oh, it was nothing. Just gathering different plants and such,” Astrid said, trying to figure out what these guys could possibly want while the job hall manager processed the quests she had selected.
“So, you completed the quests then?” the guy asked, surprise evident in his voice.
“I did. In fact, I only got here to pick up a few more, and then I’ll be on my way.”
“Aren’t you scared you’ll get attacked by monsters?”
“A bit.” She answered honestly. “It’s practically unavoidable these days, but I usually manage.”
"Well, we have an offer for you,” the leader said. “We can protect you and then split the reward.”
“So, I get one half and you get the other?” Maybe extra help with fighting monsters wouldn’t be too bad, although it would make it hard for her to use her cloak to make herself invisible without giving away which god she followed.
"No, there are four of us. We would each get a quarter.”
“No thanks, I’ll pass.” There was no way she would part with the majority of her earnings for something she could do herself. She began to leave the building, but the man blocked her path.
“What you need is someone to protect you while you’re outside the city, and we are professional guards training to fight monsters. You may have been lucky enough to survive your first trip on your own, but that’s not going to last.”
“If you want to fight monsters, you don’t need to act as my guards. I doubt anyone would mind if the monster population decreased.”
“There’s no money in that. Who’s going to compensate us for our work?”
“Have you tried asking someone in charge of the city, like the mayor? Maybe they’ll make a deal with you.”
“The mayor is still adamant that we wait for the king to send someone to help us with the monsters. She won’t be doing anything in the meantime.”
“Well, I don’t want to pay most of my earnings for someone to watch my back while I pick flowers. If you need money, you can take on some gathering quests of your own. There’s enough for all of us.”
“We are fighters, not gatherers,” the guy with the sword said, looking horrified as if he equated the notion of picking flowers with killing children. His red hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and his chin was stubbled.
“You get to fight monsters as well. They tend to attack out of nowhere, whether you want them to or not.”
“You mean you both gather plants and fight monsters? Those are two very different skills. I have never heard of an occupation that requires both,” the woman said. Her black hair was chopped short, and she had an intense look on her face.
“Yes,” Astrid said hesitantly. “Do you have a problem with that?”
“Only poor people choose not to specialize in one area when unlocking skills. Everyone else pays someone to do things outside their profession,” the red-haired man said.
“Well, some people have a hobby skill or two and take on a second profession once they master the first one or it becomes obsolete. Maybe that’s her reason?” the leader said, looking at Astrid expectantly.
“Nope, I grew up on a farm, so I am one of those poor people who can’t afford to hire help, so I’ll take my changes with the monsters for now, but I’ll let you know if I change my mind. Now, if you will excuse me, I have some quests to complete.”
She pushed her way past the three people towards the exit of the job hall. Hopefully she hadn’t made a lot of enemies just now, but she was not going to give them a lot of money for something she could do herself.